Multi-Ant-Colony Based Multi-Path Routing Algorithm for Overlay Network

Network topology always changes randomly during the communication. This paper presented a multi-ant colony based multi-path routing algorithm (MACMPR). Comparing with the conventional ant colony based route protocols, MACMPR extended the basic ant colony to multiple ones with dynamic pheromone release design. Each ant colony searches one path and repulses other ant colonies. Ants deposit pheromones depends on the situation of network and nodes capability, which provides a new method to avoid the congestion. MACMPR constructs multi-path for every destination and source nodes and allocate the traffic load of network to the different paths to avoid traffic congestion. It is robust and applies backup path to deliver data packets when link failure occurs.